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Back in Nov. 2021, Big Thief lead singer Adrianne Lenker toured her solo double album “song” and “instrumentals,” an intimate and vocals-centered endeavor. As part of the setlist, she also performed an unreleased song she named “Spud Infinity.” Jangly and almost childlike, “Spud Infinity” sounded like an odd choice to include, yet it also perfectly displayed Lenker’s peculiar and unpredictable songwriting. Several months later, “Spud Infinity” was released as a single for Big Thief’s new record, “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” hinting at the record’s unbounded and unwieldy personality.
On Big Thief’s latest offering, four seems to be the magic number. Recorded in four different regions of the United States, with four different producers, and four different artistic endeavors in mind, “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” sonically encapsulates the band’s recording journey. It is at once sprawling, dynamic, multifaceted, and a natural extension of 2019’s “U.F.O.F.” and “Two Hands.” Although, at one hour and 20 minutes, it is Big Thief’s longest record to date, it is never a drag or redundant. “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” benefits from the ambitious amount of genres, textures, and sound Big Thief stuffs into the record. It is at times cerebral, drawing elements from “U.F.O.F.,” and at times earthy, echoing the grounded rock of “Two Hands.” Spanning many different genres, sounds, and energies, the album proves that Big Thief continues to reach new heights.
Opening the album with the soft folk tune “Change,” Big Thief eases into the album with a track focused on Lenker’s voice, imitating the intimate environment of past records “Masterpiece” and “Capacity.” Over softly-strummed guitar, Lenker laments, “Change like the wind / like the water / like skin.” Speaking on the inevitability of change, the passage of time, as well as the fleeting nature of human relationships, the track’s lyrics juxtapose with the seemingly familiar territory the song musically treks. Sweet and minimally produced, the track’s central themes hint at the journey that the rest of the album takes.
Next, Big Thief throws the curveball that is “Spud Infinity.” Silly, gleeful and the closest Big Thief has approached to southern folk music, the track’s instrumentals are as off-brand as its lyrics. Featuring an infectious fiddle, the mischievous boring of a jaw harp, and a shoe-stomping melody, you would almost think that Big Thief had pulled out a banjo and changed into flannels and ripped jean shorts. Its lyrics, in the same vein, are warm, goofy, and humorous all at the same time. Cleverly, Lenker giddily sings “When I say celestial / I mean extraterrestrial / I mean accepting the alien you’ve rejected in your own heart.”
Although Lenker speaks on many different things, ranging from birds to Adam and Eve to potatoes, she still returns to the idea that she draws the most from: love. In the album’s title track, Big Thief mirrors the alien landscape that inspired “U.F.O.F.” Backed by a sparkling and magical guitar line, the band seems to float throughout the track, especially when iridescent ambient sounds illuminate the background of the guitar strumming. Fittingly, throughout much of the song, Lenker sings lyrics that are enigmatic and inscrutable. Clarity hits, however, when she professes “Take me to the limits of your love.” As the sounds swell around Lenker’s rising voice, the song takes flight.
Similarly, Lenker expresses these ideas of love in “Little Things,” a shoegaze-esque highlight from the record. Swirling, distorted and noisy guitar drives the song as Lenker traces every detail of her love for its subject. Cutting through the thick instrumentals, she expresses “The little things I like about you … New York is a crowded place / I still lose sight of every other face.” Near the end of the track, Lenker lets out a throaty yelp, electrifying the song with her own display of passion.
Speaking in an interview with Vulture, Lenker said of the recording process, “We weren’t thinking of trying to match the sounds or trying to make continuity at all… We constructed what felt more like a playlist rather than everything being one vibe.” This sentiment is felt throughout the record, with many different genres never before explored by Big Thief being showcased on “Dragon.” The hip-hop inflected rhythm of “Blurred View” and the electronic textures of “Heavy Bend” stand as clear examples. Big Thief even flexes more shoegaze on the ethereal “Flower of Blood,” and returns to Appalachian folk on “Red Moon.”
A folky, earthy track, “Blue Lightning,” concludes the album. Dedicated to their relationship as a band, Lenker speaks for everyone: “I wanna be the shoelace that you tie / ’Til the end, will you be my friend?” As the track concludes, one of the male band members can be heard saying in the background, “Gorgeous set, okay, what should we do now?” This imperfection in production at the end of the record conveys the very essence of their journey recording “Dragon.” Big Thief is capable of going anywhere. And “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” tracks their wondrous trajectory into interesting, unknown territory.
